Mobilink NOC Dept.

By Faras Rafiq Ex- NOC (NSS) Engineer

Mobilink NOC

Telecom Companies in Pakistan

Telecommunication is one largest revenue generating industry in Pakistan. Currently the following companies are operating in Pakistan Mobilink Ufone Warid Telenor WorldCall Wateen PTCL China-Tel (Paktel)

Cost Comparison
Services Mobile Sim Local Call Rates Local SMS MMS Cost in Australia (AUS$) $2-4 $0.8/Min $0.25/SMS $0.5/MMS Cost in Pakistan (AUS$) $0.77 $0.027/Min peak time, $ 0.077/ HOUR at night For $1.15 you can get 1000 SMS $0.04/MMS

Mobilink earns AUS $15 Million/day by only voucher recharge, where as Mobilink biggest customer is Post paid

History of Mobilink

Mobilink is owned by Orascom Telecom (OT) which is an Egyptian based company,it also owns MobiNil and BanglaLink. Mobilink was established in 1999 and it is the largest Telecom Company in Pakistan. 35 Million+ subscribers by March 2008. (compared to 21.4 Million population of Australia-on 9 Sep 2008 14:35). 60 MSCs,650+ BSCs and 7000+ Cell sites across Pakistan. How to Manage such a large network !!!!

History of Mobilink NOC

A centralized OMCR (Radio Network) was established in 2000 in Lahore. Performed Fault and Configuration management for BSCs and BTS only. During 2006-2007 Mobilink faced a loss of US$ 60 Million due to Network Down time. In 2007, Mobilink decided to establish a complete NOC for end to end visibility which included Access, Core, TXN, IN and VAS.

Departmental Organization of Mobilink

TMN Model

Network Element
The following Network Elements are monitored in Mobilink. Access side: BSCs (Alcatel,Motorola, Huawei) BTS Individual Cell Sites. Core Side: MSCs (Siemens,Alcatel,Huawei,Nokia) HLS (Motrolla). STP ( Tekelec) IN & Vas side: IN Platforms (Siemens) SGSN (Alcatel) GGSN (Alcatel) SMSC (Logica) IVRs PRBTs USSD TXN side: Optical Fiber and ATM nodes (Huawei)

Element Management
Following EMSs are deployed in Mobilink Access Side: Motorola OMC Alcatel OMC Huawei OMC Core side: Siemens SCR Alcatel NMC Huawei iManager NetBoss IN & Vas side @comms OMC-PS TXN side Huawei iManager

Network Management

EMS provide Fault and Configuration capabilities for their respective NEs. Alarm Types, Commands syntax and terminologies for hardware are different for each vendor. Separate Teams and trainings required for each domain of elements. Mobilink opted for a NMS solution called TeMIP (Telecommunication Management Information Platform) provided by HP. One platform for all entities, translate all alarm types to standard format, convert generalized commands to individual EMSs syntax. A single Team required to handle problems from all types of Network Elements.

Service Management

NOC engineers use TeMIP (NMS) to perform Fault and Configuration Management to provide services to the subscriber. Special software are used to analyze the performance of individual NEs and give their feed back to operations and planning departments. Create Weekly, Monthly downtime and response time reports for higher management to analyze and devise strategies for future expansions and improvements. Thats the reason NOC is given the name Eyes and Heart of a Network !!!

Business Management

Managers and Specialists are responsible for proper functionality of NOC department. Analyze reports and identify areas of improvement and devise strategies to reduce network downtime. Take up issues with Operations and Planning department These are the people who decide investing on Capex (US$80 Million TeMIP project) to reduce Opex .

TeMIP NMS

In terms on FCAPS TeMIP provides F,C,P,S. TeMIP provides the following functionality to NOC Engineer. Automatic Trouble Ticket creation. Tap Filter (Block unwanted alarms). Corrective Filter (User friendly format). Correlations (Handle complex scenarios). Transient Filters (Avoid Fluctuations). Outage Management (Planned Activity). Routine checks .

TeMIP NMS

an engineer opined to the author that network management is best described as all aspects of devising and operating networks that no one knows how to automate D. Comer. On average 280,000 alarms are received a day. These alarms are handled by 50 NOC engineers Most of the alarms are fluctuations or straight forward and can be easily automated. Automated systems cannot match human decision making. For example Fiber break, Outage due to Power issues. A single 16 STM Fiber break will generate nearly 77,500 alarms alone. The process can be automated but infeasible in terms of time, computational and resource cost.

Network Management Protocols

SNMP (UDP Based) Q3 (TCP Based) CORBA (TCP Based)

Architecture of TeMIP

OVSD Trouble Ticketing System

OVSD Trouble Ticketing System

All Trouble Tickets created are stored in an oracle database. These trouble tickets are notified to the relevant persons by automatic E-mail or SMS. The on-site engineer accepts the T.T via e-mail or sms which indicates that the problem is under investigation. Any change in the status of the T.T is notified and once the issue is resolved the on-site engineer inform the reason via e-mail or sms and the T.T is closed. This T.T system is given the name OVSD.

Configuration Management

TeMIP has the functionality to provide Configuration Management without worrying about the underlying Network Element. Provides a standard GUI form with mandatory fields highlighted for particular tasks. Once a command is executed, it is converted into the syntax understood by the respective EMS.

Performance Management

Performance Management

TeMIP provides statistical displays of T.T created for each type of problems in a day. It provides easy extractable Excel file for creating reports. It provides MAPs to readily identify problems in the network All these features are used by Management (Managers, HODs, Directors, CTO) to determine in one look how a network is performing.

Alarm Text of SNMP Alarm

N1_L3MTP:Signalling link failed (stopped), LINK=STK1BL16, A tiIncTrapCleared trap was received from 10.14.2.30 at 274693740. DESCRIPTION: Trap issued by the INC to an OS with a severity value of 'cleared'. The objects contained in the variable binding list are scalar objects ( with index 0 ). VARIABLES: tiAlarmDateTime=20080801182933+0600, tiAlarmReportingObject={ 1 3 6 1 4 1 231 7 99 4 1000 0 }, tiAlarmFaultyObject={ 1 3 6 1 4 1 231 7 99 47 1000 99 9 1 1 8 78 49 95 76 51 77 84 80 }, tiAlarmEventTypeId=communicationsAlarm, tiAlarmSeverity=cleared, tiAlarmErrorID=1179650, tiAlarmEndKey=true, tiAlarmDescription=N1_L3MTP:Signalling link failed(stopped), LINK=STK1BL16, tiAlarmSequenceNumber=47066365, tiAlarmSourceName=in9ce1-core2,

1.3.6.1.4.1.231.7 iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.sni.siemensUnits

Countries where TeMIP is used for Network Management

France Singapore Peru Canada Taiwan China UK

References
Mobilink NMS Ph2 Functional Specifications v1.0-S http://www.mobilinkgsm.com Price comparison figures taken from optus brochure http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs @.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca2568200 0192af2/1647509ef7e25faaca2568a9 00154b63?opendocument

THANK YOU for your time

ANY Questions !!!!!!!